CHENNAI, July 30 � Former DMK Minister Veerapandi Arumugam and a party MLA were today arrested in land grabbing cases and their leader MK Stalin was detained during a stir, prompting DMK chief M Karunanidhi to accuse the Jayalalithaa Government of indulging in political vendetta, reports PTI.
Police arrested former minister Veerapandi Arumugam and a DMK MLA J Anbazhagan in two different land grabbing cases and detained Stalin, Karunanidhi�s son, for staging a road roko near Tiruvarur, leading to sporadic protests across the state.
Arumugam was arrested in a landgrab case in Salem when he appeared before the police as per his bail conditions in two cases filed earlier. He was lodged in a Coimbatore prison.
Protesting his arrest, Arumugam�s followers pelted stones at buses in Salem, injuring two drivers, police said.
Anbazhagan, party�s legislator from Chepauk constituency in Chennai, was picked up by a team of Tirupur police a landgrab case filed in that district.
Stalin was held when he along with his aides allegedly squatted on the road after police sought to take into custody Tiruvarur District DMK Secretary Kalaivanan in connection with a case related to the death of a school student in a road mishap yesterday. Stalin was later let off, police said.
Jayalalithaa had blamed the DMK�s school boycott call to press for implementation of the uniform education system for the death of the boy, alleging Kalaivanan instigated his partymen to force the students, including the boy, to go out of the school.
The boy died when the bus in which he was returning home was involved in an accident.
DMK workers courted arrest at several places protesting against the detention of Stalin. Chennai Mayor M Subramaniam was among those taken into custody, police said.
Unfazed by the spate of arrests, Karunanidhi said in Chennai that the DMK would go ahead with its scheduled state-wide protest on August 1 against �foisting� of �false cases� against his partymen.
�Jayalalithaa�s vendetta and the police action are exceeding the limits,� Karunanidhi said shortly after Stalin was detained when he visited Koradacheri village near Tiruvarur to condole the death of the boy.
Karunanidhi said the protest to condemn the police action against DMK men will go ahead �peacefully,� as scheduled.
To a question, he said Jayalalithaa needed no reason to wreak vengeance (on DMK).
The DMK had called for the protest in the backdrop of a number of party functionaries coming under the police scanner over land grabbing charges.
Fulfilling one of its electoral promises, the ruling AIADMK has launched a crackdown on land grabbing during the previous DMK regime and set up special police cells across the state to deal with the complaints.
